Posted on July 22, 2021
Editor’s note:This article has been updated to reflect the tonnage moved last year.
More cargo has sailed through the Port of Corpus Christi in the first six months of 2021 than it did in 2020, which was its record year for waterway tonnage.
The port ended June 2021 with a new record quarter and a record first half of the year, moving nearly 80.5 million tons of cargo during the first six months of the year, port officials said in a statement Monday.
Its first-half 2021 total tonnage resulted in a 4.7% increase during the same period in 2020. Port officials credited the uptick to a 72% year-over-year increase in liquefied natural gas exports.
The port also reported a 42% year-over-year increase in agriculture commodities, and a 3.6% increase in crude oil exports.
“As global economies continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing strong demand for energy-related products originating in Texas,” port CEO Sean Strawbridge said. “Our customers play a vital role in both feeding and fueling the world and we are proud of their accomplishments in producing and moving these essential goods to high demand centers. The infrastructure investments the Port of Corpus Christi has made and continues to construct will undoubtedly make our existing customers more competitive and preserve the high level of investability for new customers in Texas.”
Surging demand for crude oil, both nationally and globally, also were key.
Crude oil exports for the first half of 2021 averaged 1.58 million barrels per day, slightly above the 2020 full-year run rate, port officials said.
Nearly 43 million tons of cargo moved through the port in the second quarter, a 2% increase from the prior quarterly record set in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Corpus Christi’s port is the nation’s third-largest port in tonnage revenue and took an especially crucial role in the global shipment of goods and materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are fortunate to be able to support our customers and stakeholders by keeping the Port of Corpus Christi fully operational, ensuring global commerce and job growth continues uninterrupted,” said Charles W. Zahn Jr., who chairs the Port of Corpus Christi Commission.
Last year, 6,800 vessels sailed through its waters, carrying 160 million tons of cargo, most of it crude and petrochemicals.
The upswing in both traffic and tonnage provides momentum behind the port’s effort to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Port officials hope the strategy will pay off by allowing two-vessel traffic.
In May 2019, the port formally broke ground on its effort to widen and deepen the channel.
The improvement project has become increasingly necessary for the port since Congress lifted a 40-year ban on crude oil exports that was put into place in 1975 by President Gerald Ford.
That ban was lifted in late 2015, allowing the nation’s first shipment of crude oil to be exported from Corpus Christi’s port.
The project involves dredging the ship channel to 54 feet and widening it to 530 feet, which would accommodate larger vessels and two-way traffic.
Strawbridge said the project is on pace to be completed by December 2023.
Ship and barge activity
2021 2,806*
2020 6,907
2019 6,874
2018 6,467
2017 6,482
* Accounts for traffic in January to May 2021 only
Source: Port of Corpus Christi
